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What Is Function?

The last decade has seen a huge increase in technology within the rehabilitation, fitness, and conditioning fields. Think of the machines we see today in fitness clubs and the experiences computers allow us while we work out. Fitness machines can now link other machines to a computer system that will track training progress and client usage or give us a 3D visual experience as we run, bike, or golf on a machine. Wow!  

In spite of technology, we see another trend within our field. This trend in rehabilitation and training will impact human performance and greatly increase the economics and efficiency of conditioning. This trend is termed “functional training”. 

You may already have heard this buzz phrase, but what is function?  In its basic form, function is defined as a “purpose” or “duty”. Following this definition, functional can then be defined as: performing a function; “useful” or “practical”; performing a duty for which a person or thing is intended for; a normal or characteristic action of anything. Function then becomes a spectrum of requirements. What is functional to one person may not be functional to another. 

How we see human movement and function defines our approach to rehabilitating and training the body. For example, we often see people performing thousands of sit-ups to strengthen their abdominals in order to be able to run faster, throw farther, or hit a golf ball farther. But do sit-ups actually train the abdominals to perform their function in running, walking, lifting, carrying, or sitting at a desk? The short answer is No!  When we analyze human movement, the abdominals rarely, if ever, flex or crunch the trunk. Gravity does that, so why would we need a muscle to do it!  The function of the abdominals is decelerate and accelerate our shoulder while throwing a ball, help our pelvis rotate and accelerate our legs during walking, and even to protect our knees!  Our abdominals function mainly diagonally and in an upright posture – why do crunches lying down!

The beauty of the functional approach to rehabilitation and training is its minimalism. Minimal and inexpensive equipment is all that is needed to train in a functional manner. Think of how many machines it would take to functionally train all possible combinations of the 700 muscles and 206 bones in our bodies – a lot!  But with simple  dumbbells, exercise bands, stability balls, and gravity we can design exercise movements that efficiently train the body to perform the tasks we demand of it.

It is not necessary to understand the detailed complexity of the human body to have an appreciation for the effectiveness of functional training. Once we understand the “human machine”, we can effective rehabilitate and train the body consistently with the way we will use it. Our bodies are too complex and distinct to be effectively trained by a machine. Our philosophy is nothing trains the human body like the human body!